Goldman\’s trading revenue: More daily losses, fewer outsize gains

Traders at the Goldman Sachs booth on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

Was 2013 a good year or a bad one for banks\’ trading results? Depends how you look at it.

Bank of America Corp.
and Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
had more days of trading losses in 2013 than the previous year. Goldman and Morgan Stanley
also had fewer giant, $100 million-plus trading days compared to the year before. And while Morgan Stanley had fewer days of overall trading losses, it had more days of losses totaling more than $25 million.

Confused yet? We\’ll walk you through the information that the megabanks have been reporting about daily trading revenue through their annual regulatory filings, including Goldman\’s release on Friday. Citigroup Inc.
has yet to report, and Wells Fargo & Co.
does not break out the relevant data.

Of the other banks:

Bank of America saw a relatively small number of daily trading losses, only losing on 10 days during 2013, but that was up from six in 2012. Its largest daily loss was $54 million, worse than its largest loss of $50 million in 2012.

Goldman Sachs had more daily losses in 2013, up to 27 days from 16 days in 2012. Of those, four days experienced losses of $25 million or more, same as the previous year. The number of big gains also fell. The bank had 34 days of gains of $100 million or more, down from 41 days the year before.

J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. changed the way it calculates trading-day losses, with a new method that excludes fees, commissions and other adjustments that had been trimming the appearance of trading losses. Under the new method, which the bank says is meant to align with Basel-related regulations, J.P. Morgan lost money on 83 days in 2013. Under the old method, that number would have been zero.

Morgan Stanley had fewer losses in 2013, down to 33 days from 37 days in 2012. But of those days, 10 were hit with losses of more than $25 million, up from eight the year before. But of its profitable days, the bank had just 14 days of gains of $100 million or more, down from 23 days the year before.

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